Property taxes in Dubai: what an owner actually pays

"There are no taxes in Dubai" is simultaneously true and misleading. True, because the UAE levies no annual property tax and no personal income tax. Misleading, because an owner still pays — the payments are just called something else. Here is the full list, in the order you meet it.

What genuinely does not exist

• Annual property tax. Holding an apartment is not itself taxed.
• Personal income tax. Rental income received by an individual is not taxed in the UAE.
• Capital gains tax. Sell higher than you bought and the difference is yours.
• Inheritance tax — with an important caveat. Without a will drawn up under UAE rules, succession over a non-resident's assets may not follow the path you assume. The will is made here and made early.

What you pay when buying

• 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee on the property value. Formally shared between the parties; in practice in Dubai the buyer pays it. This is the main transaction cost.
• Administrative and title issuance fees — fixed amounts, not percentages.
• Agency commission on the secondary market, usually 2%. On a developer launch the buyer pays nothing; the developer pays the agency.
• Mortgage costs if financed: registration of the charge, calculated on the loan amount, plus valuation.

Budget 6–7% on top of the price on the secondary market, less on a launch.

What you pay every year

• Service charge — building and common-area maintenance, charged per square foot per year. Not a tax, but by size it is the owner's principal annual outgoing, and it varies enormously by building. Get the figure before you sign — it decides your net yield more than the rent does.
• Municipality housing fee — 5% of annual rent, paid by the tenant through monthly DEWA bills. Owners should know it exists, because for a tenant it is part of the cost of the home and therefore indirectly part of your achievable rate.
• Utilities (DEWA) — the tenant's if let, yours if the unit sits empty.

Commercial property: here VAT applies

Residential property in the UAE is either exempt from VAT or zero-rated on first sale. Commercial property — offices, retail, warehouses — carries 5% VAT, which changes the arithmetic of the deal. If you are looking at an office as an investment, model the VAT as a separate line and check how the seller is registered.

Separately, UAE corporate tax of 9% has applied to business profit above a threshold since 2023. An individual who owns an apartment in a personal capacity and lets it is generally outside its scope. Hold the property through a company, or run letting as a business, and the question stops being obvious and needs advice.

The part your home country still expects

This is the section the marketing articles omit. The absence of tax in the UAE does not remove obligations in your country of tax residence. Most systems tax residents on worldwide income, which includes rent earned in Dubai, and many also require disclosure of foreign accounts and assets. Whether the UAE's tax treaty network helps you depends on which treaty applies and in which version.

A UAE residence visa by itself does not make you a UAE tax resident, and does not end residence elsewhere: what counts is days spent and where your centre of life sits. A UAE tax residency certificate is applied for separately and on conditions. This is where a tax adviser in your own jurisdiction earns their fee — we are brokers, and we say where our competence ends.

What a residence visa does and does not give is set out separately in UAE residence visa through property.

In short

• No annual property tax, no personal income tax in the UAE.
• 4% DLD on purchase, plus 2–3% of other costs on the secondary market.
• Service charge is the real annual bill — check it before signing.
• Commercial property carries 5% VAT.
• Your home country's rules continue to apply, whatever the UAE does not charge.

Live stock with prices is in the catalogue; for a specific transaction modelled end to end, write to us.